Church Road Grand Reserve Chardonnay

2023, Hawkes Bay New Zealand

A big, full bodied, powerful Hawke's Bay Chardonnay - this is first class
92/100 (Stephen Wong MW, The Real Review)
Only produced in exceptional years, low cropping vineyards, hand-harvested, plenty of love goes into this label!
The previous five vintages have won 11 Trophies and a whopping 17 Gold medals!

Formerly known as Church Road’s Reserve range they’ve given the wines a slick, stealth like black label and slapped the word “Grand” in the name, now known as Church Road Grand Reserve Chardonnay. It sits above the Church Road McDonald Series and below their iconic (and expensive!) Church Road TOM Chardonnay.

So that’s the marketing job done, what about the wine? Are they actually Grand? Are they what! These are sheer world class wines, up there with the best you’ll find in Hawke’s Bay. That’s why you’ll only find Church Road wines under this label released in exceptional vintage. Made from low-cropping vineyard blocks (to ensure more concentrated, ripe flavours), hand-harvested and produced using small batch, traditional techniques. Entirely hand harvested, whole bunch pressed with wild yeast and left to age for 11 months in French oak.

This label has been something of a magnet for the Golds over the years. The 2018 vintage won 7 Trophies and 7 Gold medals, the 2019 was Double Gold and 95/100 by Bob Campbell MW and the 2020 vintage made international headlines taking out an incredible 97 Points & Best In Show Award at the Decanter World Wine Awards in London. That means it was one of the top 50 wines from over 18,000 entered!

The 2021 vintage didn’t buck the trend winning Trophy Best New Zealand Chardonnay, Trophy Best New Zealand White, Trophy Best International Chardonnay at the International Wine Challenge in London! The 2022 was 96/100 Bob Campbell and Double Gold at domestic wine shows.

This is the new 2023 vintage and we’re expecting nothing less in the coming months and years!

A powerful, full-bodied, complex Chardonnay with superb cellaring potential and will make a stunning food match to seafood or white meats in a creamy sauce. Sure to improve over the next five or six years too.